Adames vs Teixeira results: Patrick Teixeira upsets Carlos Adames to win interim WBO title

He was bleeding from both eyes pretty early in the fight, but at the end of 12 rounds, Patrick Teixeira got the official word: he’d pulled off the upset and beaten Carlos Adames to gain the interim WBO junior middleweight title.

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Teixeira (31-1, 22 KO) won the fight on scores of 114-113, 114-113, and 116-111, with a seventh round knockdown of Adames (18-1, 14 KO) being the difference on two of the cards, meaning that without it, the fight would have ended as a majority draw.

Fighting through a blood-streaked face, Brazil’s Teixeira, 28, appeared to be down after six rounds, and pretty considerably so, but the second of the fight really belonged to him. He dropped and badly hurt the Dominican Republic’s Adames late in the seventh, and Adames was in bad enough shape getting up that referee Robert Byrd really could have stopped the fight without much argument. Instead, he let the clock run out.

Adames showed his last serious signs of life in a bounce-back eighth round, where he started looking like he had no legs underneath him, but was able to cover up well enough to get them back and do a little more damage to Teixeira.

But from there, Teixeira really took over. He had the confidence and the swagger, pounding his chest and daring Adames to bring the fight to him. Adames, who wasn’t the man covered in blood, looked the worse for wear in terms of spirit and energy, while Teixeira just kept coming on, throwing punches and outworking and outfighting the 25-year-old house favorite.

Teixeira is now expected to be elevated to full WBO titleholder status at next week’s WBO convention in Tokyo, with Jaime Munguia set to move up in weight in January. That means the WBO junior middleweight title will stay in the Golden Boy ranks, if all goes as expected.

This is obviously a major setback for Adames, who has been given some ESPN puff pieces and some hype, but has always seemed a bit below that blue chip sort of level those are usually reserved for, at least in my view. Still, Adames is a talented fighter who can punch, and some more fine-tuning, if possible, could see him come back a strong contender after this defeat.

Teixeira, of course, will be over the moon. He was written off by most after a 2016 knockout loss to Curtis Stevens, who flattened the Brazilian inside of two rounds, but he’s settled in at 154 and even after struggling last time out against Mario Lozano in Mexico, he’s come back and staked his claim to being a world champion. He’ll be very vulnerable going forward — I don’t see anyone avoiding this guy — but he’s got this moment if nothing else.